Word has just eaten my files @#!

Aaagh! I’m in the middle of a computer nightmare. Coming in this morning to continue working on a couple of Word files everything looked just as I had left them the night before until I realised that all the work I had done on them yesterday had completely disappeared! It was like groundhog day, but with considerably more aggravation and swearing.
To be fair, a dialog had popped up the day before to warn me that autorecovery saving had been postponed, but I had too many files open to fancy rebooting so I decided to close down some large apps and continue with slightly more Ctrl+S than usual. Everything seemed to work fine and I gave it no more thought.
Clearly during the night, Windows Update had decided to install some patch and shut down Word then rebooted and loaded what it thought was the most sensible files. I’m not sure if this has saved me from a worse nightmare – maybe saving wasn’t working at all and I could have worked on for a couple of days and then hit the problem. However whether it’s Word or Windows, I’m holding Microsoft responsible and in colourful terms.
I’m not quite sure what I should do about this – is a class action feasible? – and am strongly tempted to switch off Windows Update’s auto installing which is always a pain (isn’t this what nag screens are for?) I’m also half hoping that someone knows where my files have gone.
The one thing I do know is that if the dialog reappears I am immediately attempting to save, cutting and pasting into a WordPad backup and rebooting. And I strongly advise you to do the same.

I really hate to say it, but it looks like I have been proven right. Readers will recall how I have been calling for transparancy in the contracts between customers and this new wave of cloud providers. Companies such as Microsoft have been and continue to do their utmost to confuse and layer a smokescreen over the whole liability issue. I have detailed this many times as it has unfolded, and have asked repeatedly for clarification.